Katie Porter: “Let me explain what my feelings are about the program the way it is written. We talked, if I can say to the gentleman…”

“Let me explain what my feelings are about the program the way it is written. We talked, if I can say to the gentleman from Kansas and the gentleman from Wisconsin, earlier we talked about a program called Healthy Start, a demonstration program started under President Bush by Secretary Louis Sullivan at HHS, a very, very good program. I said in respect to this program and in respect to the State students incentive grants program, one that the President himself zeroed out in this budget and that we zeroed out and have steadfastly maintained it ought to be zeroed out, these are programs that have never been specifically authorized. They have operated under a demonstration authority just like this one has, the rural outreach grants, since fiscal year 1991, and in respect to rural outreach the current cycle of grants will end for the most part in fiscal year 1996. The bill's funding level of $4 million would permit the few remaining grantees to continue operating through fiscal year 1997. But after $146 million of total funding this demonstration should be evaluated, the lessons learned from it and the resources provided, incorporated into existing programs that provide similar services or new legislation should be written to reflect that, and one of the great difficulties we have in Congress is that we start a demonstration project. SSIG is a prime example; 24 years of demonstration, and we kept funding it year after year after year.”